Fifty-One Discriminatory Scholarships At University of Rhode Island Challenged By Equal Protection Project
“We’re going to seek to make URI a test case for the Trump administration”
The Equal Protection Project (EPP) (EqualProtect.org) of the Legal Insurrection Foundation has challenged numerous discriminatory programs done in the name of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In all we have filed over 50 complaints and legal actions since launch in February 2023, with approximately half the schools withdrawing or modifying the discriminatory programs after our filing. (See EPP November 2024 Impact Report.)
Almost all of our actions have addressed discrimination in higher education. In our latest action, we have filed a Civil Rights Complaint (full embed at bottom of post) with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education, against the University of Rhode Island over 51 scholarships that discriminated on the basis of race (23), race and sex (5), or sex (23).
From the Complaint:
We bring this civil rights complaint against the University of Rhode Island (“URI”) for offering, promoting and administering fifty-one (51) student scholarships that discriminate based on race and/or sex. The discrimination is so pervasive and systematic that urgent action by OCR is needed before the scholarships come up for reapplication in the spring 2025 semester.
These scholarships are listed, promoted and administered through the URI online scholarship system, and applications for them can only be accessed by logging in to the URI online scholarship system,2 as reflected in the screenshot below from the URI website.3
“To apply to scholarships, you must first Sign In at the top right corner of this page with your URI Single Sign On credentials to access the campus login portal.” [emphasis in original]
[image omitted]
According to the FAQ for the URI online scholarship system, the system provides information on scholarships available to URI students, allows URI students to apply for scholarships, recommends scholarships for them, and matches them with scholarships for which they qualify.4
Moreover, as set forth below, many of the scholarships state that URI’s Enrollment Services – a department of URI that assists students with their enrollment needs, “from understanding financial aid and registering for courses to paying [their] bill and getting a transcript”5 – selects the award recipients along with other URI staff members or faculty. URI thus is involved not only in promotion and administration of the scholarships, it selects the recipients.
The scholarships listed below were offered during the 2024-2025 academic year according to the URI website and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations6 by illegally excluding students based on their race and skin color, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) and its implementing regulations7 by excluding students based on their race, sex, or both. Because URI is a public university, these discriminatory scholarships also violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Each of the scholarships listed below had a June 30, 2024, application deadline for the 2024-2025 academic year, and some or all of them will come up for reapplication during the spring 2025 semester.
We then went through each of the 52 scholarships quoting URI’s own website descriptions, with all pages linked and archived. Here’s a sample:
We then explained the law in great detail, and concluded with a request for expedited action:
Indeed, URI appears to admit that there is a strong likelihood that several of its discriminatory scholarships are unlawful – because in its descriptions of such scholarships URI notes that “if such an award would not otherwise comply with applicable law, then the scholarship shall go to a student with demonstrated financial need and in good standing from a historically underrepresented population at the University.”18 This reflects both a consciousness of guilt on the part of URI and a callous disregard for federal anti-discrimination laws and URI’s constitutional obligations. This highlights the urgent need for OCR to conduct an investigation and put an end to this misconduct before the spring 2025 reapplication period begins.
The filing has gained substantial local and national media coverage. I appeared on the Matt Allen Show, a very popular Rhode Island-based talk show on which I have appeared many times, to talk about it, and how if the matter is not resolved by the time the Trump administration takes over, “we’re going to seek to make URI a test case for the Trump administration.”
The DailyWire had a write up:
The University of Rhode Island was hit with a federal civil rights complaint over more than 50 scholarship opportunities that discriminate against students on the basis of their race and sex.
The complaint, filed to the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, alleges that the university engaged in “pervasive and systemic” discrimination via its scholarship programs, which use racial and sexual characteristics in their selection criteria….
“The discrimination in scholarships at URI is shocking in its breadth, far exceeding any other university we have seen at the Equal Protection Project,” the organization’s founder, William A. Jacobson, told The Daily Wire. “URI does not even try to hide the discriminatory barriers, they are all detailed on the URI website.”
The Sinclair Broadcasting National Desk, in an article that ran on numerous local TV websites around the nation, covered it as well:
The non-profit Equal Protection Project launched a civil rights complaint Wednesday against the University of Rhode Island alleging the school’s scholarships discriminate based on sex and race.
The school, according to the complaint filed with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, offers 51 student scholarships that restrict eligibility based on certain demographics. Such offerings are unacceptable, the group wrote.
“The discrimination is so pervasive and systematic that urgent action by OCR is needed before the scholarships come up for reapplication in the spring 2025 semester,” the complaint reads….
The group then called for an investigation of the scholarships and enforcement by the Department of Education.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the University of Rhode Island said the school “has not received any notice of this complaint from the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.”
“The University works diligently to comply with the regulatory landscape, and we remain committed to our foundational values, including fostering an inclusive community and respect for the rights and dignity of all,” the spokesperson said.
NBC10 in Boston was one of the many local TV stations picking up the coverage. Newsmax covered it as did Campus Reform:
A legal nonprofit dedicated to combatting racism has brought forward a federal civil rights complaint against the University of Rhode Island….
”With respect to those scholarships limited to or preferring ‘minorities’ any reasonable student viewing that criteria would understand it to exclude white students, and such students would be dissuaded from even applying or attempting to participate,” the group adds.
”While the use of racial, skin color, and sex-based barriers described above are explicit, such descriptions also are ‘signaling’ racial- and sex-based preferences,” the document continues. ”Regardless of URI’s reasons for offering, promoting, and administering such discriminatory scholarships, URI is violating Title VI and Title IX by doing so. It does not matter if the recipient of federal funding discriminates in order to advance a benign ‘intention’ or ‘motivation.’”
We expect the media coverage to grow.
As you consider year-end charitable donations, please remember we are a small organization going up against powerful and wealthy government and private institutions devoted to DEI discrimination. Donations are greatly needed and appreciated.
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Comments
Are these non-scholarships funded with all that money the Biden Syndicate handed out for DEI?
My boiler plate remains the same: I like EPPs way of doing something better than any other ‘watch dogs’ doing nothing, BUT unless there are criminal penalties for these uni admins for aggressivelely, egregiously, and repeatedly violating Title X laws nothing will change, and it will still just be *clown world* where the national past time is just wack-a-mole where they will do this again & again because no serious, personel consequences.
While I’m still very proud of my degrees from URI, a lot of things have changed in the intervening forty-plus years. Most of what seems to be broken in today’s culture seems to have come from the colleges and universities (and public schools whose teachers are big agents of change), so it’s no surprise that these same institutions act like toddlers and push the envelope, seeing what they can get away with. Unfortunately a large enough number of folks don’t see anything wrong with that approach.
We live in strange times. Decency and morality, like shame and respect for laws, are not guiding principles. We see it on our media outlets, in corporate boardrooms, universities, everywhere. God, I feel like such a prude. It makes me wonder if I don’t have some Puritan blood. (That scares the living daylights out of me!)
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